Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Human Acts by Han Kang

175 reviews

marjoleinvanderspoel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Beautiful, blunt and absolutely heartbreaking. A necessary foray into a history that's still relevant today in Korea and worldwide.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Confinement, Gun violence, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, and Child death

alicekorchard's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Torture, Genocide, Police brutality, Blood, Violence, Murder, Death, Mass/school shootings, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

syllareads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide

dmhl's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

profoundly and hauntingly beautiful. emotionally draining. took so much out of me but i knew i had to finish for Dong-ho’s sake. i will never be the same. 

After you died I couldn't hold a funeral,
So these eyes that once beheld you became a shrine.
These ears that once heard your voice became a shrine.
These lungs that once inhaled your breath became a shrine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Grief, War, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Confinement, Blood, Gun violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, Police brutality, Body horror, Child death, and Genocide

anh_read's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

Anhand verschiedener Charaktere und Perspektiven beschreibt dieser Roman eindrucksvoll die Geschehnisse um Gwangju-Massaker in 1980 und ihre Auswirkungen auf Überlebende und die Angehörigen der Opfer. Da ich zuvor noch nie davon gehört habe, war ich schockiert, mit welcher Brutalität man versucht hat, Demonstrationen zu unterdrücken. 

Es ist definitiv kein einfaches Buch. Man sollte sich definitiv die Triggerwarnungen unbedingt vorher durchlesen. Ansonsten lässt sich das Buch gut und schnell lesen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, Police brutality, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Death, Excrement, Mass/school shootings, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Infertility

Minor: Suicide

kenyoncannotread's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

One of the hardest reads for me, emotionally, ever. Check the content warnings first, but this will be one of the best books you’ll ever read if you pick it up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Alcohol, Gun violence, Death, Rape, Violence, Child death, Physical abuse, Police brutality, War, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Sexual assault, Confinement, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Gore

emergencily's review against another edition

5.0

• a set of interconnected stories revolving around different characters as they live through the bloody gwangju student uprisings & subsequent massacres in 1980, and the aftermath of its grief and trauma throughtout the decades. 
• extremely visceral & raw, with a focus on bodies -- examining the marks of both physical and intangible violence left on the body, what we do with the bodies of the dead (washing & dressing, family burials, dumping in mass graves), and how we remember those bodies. there's a chapter told from the perspective of a corpse as the soul watches its own body being dumped into a mass grave and beginning to decompose
• all about emotion, memory, grief and loss. the book really makes you feel the loss of these young protestors and the emptiness they leave behind in the lives of their loved ones and in the collective nation

“After you died I could not hold a funeral,
And so my life became a funeral.
Oh, return to me.
Oh, return to me when I call your name.
Do not delay any longer. Return to me now.
After you died I couldn’t hold a funeral
So these eyes that once beheld you became a shrine.
These ears that once heard your voice became a shrine.
These lungs that once inhaled your breath became a shrine.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Sexual assault, Torture, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Child death

lisvxdro's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I was given this book by a coworker and a companion during my time in South Korea. On the surface level, I was a bit conflicted as I didn’t have enough information on the Gwangju Uprisings. But that’s the beauty of this book. Han Kang uses real-life stories and create a sort of nonfiction-esque novel where we learn about the issues of that time through the eyes of multiple characters. Each character, having some connection to the boy Dong-ho, adds to this sense of shared experience unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The closest thing to this is like Babel. 

Han’s writing style for this book does well to give you impactful introspection in a way that’s not familiar in the west. By spending the entire 1/3-1/2 of the chosen chapter setting up that chapter’s character worldview, the rest is the truth revealed in the most honest way possible. This book stings, it’s raw and often picturesque to the point that it might make you queasy. But the book is worth the read.

Favorite chapters: 
-The Boy’s Friend read like a very dark and doomed Miyazaki story. I felt hopeless after.
-The Prisoner was definitely a hard one to get through, especially the reveal at the end with the young boys. Such innocence lost.
-The Boy’s Mother: I felt empty and deeply emotional. This chapter reminded me of my own fears.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, War, Child abuse, Death, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement

feleesi's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

The book takes place during the uprising in Gwangju, South Korea in the 1980s. Personally, I think that Han Kang perfectly describes the devastation that happens under oppression; the lack of dignity faced by citizens— as well as the shame, trauma, and grief that they carry. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

Moderate: Sexual violence and Suicide

claireh6's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Police brutality, Self harm, Physical abuse, Child death, Mass/school shootings, Death, Sexual violence, Grief, Alcoholism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Drug abuse